Latest / Business Roundtable / Why Being Coachable and Embracing Feedback Fuels Business Success
Transcript
- 0:31Speaker 1: All right, everybody, welcome back to the Business Roundtable podcast.
- 0:35Speaker 1: I have another new guest this week. I'm super excited
- 0:37Speaker 1: to introduce to you, Sarah Powell. We're gonna be talking
- 0:41Speaker 1: a whole lot of different things. We were we're both
- 0:44Speaker 1: local here in southern California and have a lot of
- 0:47Speaker 1: shared interests and so and our before we started recording,
- 0:51Speaker 1: and we've move before, but talking about balancing leadership, marketing,
- 0:56Speaker 1: business growth. Sarah's got just a wealth experience, particularly in
- 1:01Speaker 1: the marketing side, but growing a business. And I'm excited
- 1:05Speaker 1: to have you here. Sarah, thanks for joining us on
- 1:07Speaker 1: the Business Roundtable.
- 1:09Speaker 2: Thank you David for having me. I'm excited to be here,
- 1:12Speaker 2: share my story.
- 1:13Speaker 1: Yeah, You've got a lot of great stories, and that's
- 1:15Speaker 1: why I wanted to have you on the podcast here,
- 1:18Speaker 1: because you know you combined.
- 1:20Speaker 3: You're the founder of Curb and Sign.
- 1:22Speaker 1: We're going to talk about curb and Sign here, and
- 1:24Speaker 1: not only that, but yes or I marketing.
- 1:26Speaker 3: I was sharing.
- 1:26Speaker 1: We were just talking before we start recording, my my
- 1:29Speaker 1: gas background and my environment consulting world and how you
- 1:32Speaker 1: marry all these things and different experiences, and so I'm
- 1:37Speaker 1: really excited to have you share your journey and some
- 1:41Speaker 1: lessons learned along the way in both your professional career
- 1:46Speaker 1: and being a business owner.
- 1:48Speaker 3: So yeah, super excited.
- 1:50Speaker 2: I'm excited to share. Yeah, thank you for having me.
- 1:53Speaker 3: So yeah. Absolutely. So let's let's maybe.
- 1:56Speaker 1: You know, start with your entrepreneurial leadership at herb Insigne
- 2:01Speaker 1: and talk a little bit about y, you know, the company,
- 2:06Speaker 1: Like how long has it been around, Like when you're
- 2:08Speaker 1: going to start it from just a side hustle if
- 2:10Speaker 1: you will. A lot of people just start at side
- 2:12Speaker 1: hustle of like getting this thing going. But now this
- 2:14Speaker 1: is this is a full scale business operation that you
- 2:17Speaker 1: guys are running.
- 2:18Speaker 4: Yeah, thank you. Let's see, Well it started in twenty eleven.
- 2:24Speaker 4: I can't believe it's been that long.
- 2:26Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 2:27Speaker 4: My husband and I started the business April one, and
- 2:30Speaker 4: we thought, I hope that's not a bad sign, but
- 2:32Speaker 4: not the woods.
- 2:33Speaker 2: So far, so good.
- 2:36Speaker 4: Yes, And it started out of necessity. It was the
- 2:41Speaker 4: economy was still not great and we had two little kids.
- 2:47Speaker 4: I was a stay at home mom at the time,
- 2:50Speaker 4: and I had my master's in business.
- 2:54Speaker 2: Because of the because of the.
- 2:58Speaker 4: Sluggish economy, and because I prioritized staying home with my children.
- 3:02Speaker 4: At the time, we needed to earn extra income, and
- 3:06Speaker 4: so my husband started curb painting on the side. He
- 3:10Speaker 4: was a sales manager, did very well there.
- 3:15Speaker 2: We lived in Orange County.
- 3:16Speaker 4: It was nice, but he's also an artist. And there
- 3:21Speaker 4: was this this like phenomenon, if you will, in Huntington
- 3:27Speaker 4: Beach where everyone painted their curb addresses with beautiful beach scenes.
- 3:33Speaker 4: And he was kind of known to some of some
- 3:35Speaker 4: people that he could paint, and so he did that
- 3:38Speaker 4: for extra money. Well became such a it just kind
- 3:43Speaker 4: of became a thing with him. He grew like in popularity,
- 3:48Speaker 4: and I started helping him with getting sales crew and
- 3:53Speaker 4: getting our business licenses in Orange County so he can
- 3:59Speaker 4: start collect that business. And from there we thought, gosh,
- 4:03Speaker 4: if only we had a product that we could ship
- 4:07Speaker 4: and then and then that turned into us developing the
- 4:11Speaker 4: curb rap, which is our signature product, our invention with
- 4:19Speaker 4: a peel and stick address that replaces paint. Fast forward,
- 4:23Speaker 4: almost fourteen years later, we have a full scale business selling.
- 4:29Speaker 2: All over the country the curb rats.
- 4:33Speaker 4: We sell gosh for holidays, flags, state and country flags,
- 4:42Speaker 4: We sell personalized custom logos, and and that's just one
- 4:48Speaker 4: product from there, we developed many more products and we
- 4:51Speaker 4: have a line of home address plaques, address plaques that
- 4:58Speaker 4: are great like in the country really need to see
- 5:00Speaker 4: far away, and it's like like this the top like
- 5:04Speaker 4: material for reflected like reflect it's reflective material and just
- 5:11Speaker 4: a whole host boat signs, address signs, fire lane stencils,
- 5:15Speaker 4: business signs, and it just grew from there. And then
- 5:19Speaker 4: now it's in like the memorial space and fundraising space
- 5:22Speaker 4: and it just literally.
- 5:24Speaker 3: Just keeps going.
- 5:26Speaker 4: Yeah, so that's in a longer nutshell than I intended.
- 5:30Speaker 2: That's how it started.
- 5:32Speaker 1: Well, I mean, so what we're going to dive a
- 5:35Speaker 1: little bit, we'll dive more into this because you brought up,
- 5:38Speaker 1: you know, your husband being a creative. And then what
- 5:41Speaker 1: I found is, you know, creatives oftentime they need people
- 5:44Speaker 1: to help them in the market, the marketing and in
- 5:46Speaker 1: some systems and putting some things together. And so I know,
- 5:50Speaker 1: you know, obviously you've got fourteen years to look back
- 5:55Speaker 1: on now, you didn't do it all at once, and
- 5:57Speaker 1: I honestly felt your stories of some of the challenges
- 6:00Speaker 1: in in that process, but seeing the need, you saw
- 6:03Speaker 1: the need and how you guys came together, which you know,
- 6:09Speaker 1: to support this growth and building a team and and
- 6:13Speaker 1: and like I said, having the systems in place. I think,
- 6:18Speaker 1: I just I'm very Uh it's really awesome to see.
- 6:22Speaker 3: But I think you know, you leverage this and and
- 6:24Speaker 3: and and and and.
- 6:25Speaker 1: You're also working for es Ri, I Ezri here even
- 6:28Speaker 1: locally in Redlands. Uh, you using your marketing skills there too,
- 6:32Speaker 1: like of all these we were just talking too about recording, like, hey,
- 6:35Speaker 1: I've got a landing page here and the messaging and
- 6:37Speaker 1: we got to get out there. So you're I mean
- 6:39Speaker 1: to me, this is really important in being in marketing
- 6:42Speaker 1: and getting customer engagement. Sounds like you've really been able
- 6:44Speaker 1: to amp that up, reaching a lot a lot of
- 6:46Speaker 1: different types of customers and clients.
- 6:50Speaker 4: Yes, thank you. You know, I've been at Ezra for
- 6:55Speaker 4: seven years. It is a great company, and I it
- 7:00Speaker 4: has been a really great partnership there. I think some
- 7:04Speaker 4: of I think what makes that so successful is that
- 7:12Speaker 4: it is like a people and process kind of like
- 7:17Speaker 4: people first process, people in process first.
- 7:20Speaker 2: So I think working at Ezri has taught.
- 7:24Speaker 4: Me that it's the magic of a team. I know
- 7:28Speaker 4: that sounds so cliche, but so many processes I would say,
- 7:34Speaker 4: my skill is being able to look at something from
- 7:37Speaker 4: like a bird's eye view like and then also letting
- 7:41Speaker 4: other other experts do their role, and I know enough
- 7:46Speaker 4: about their role to be.
- 7:48Speaker 2: Dangerous and.
- 7:51Speaker 4: To further that along the end goal. So my my
- 7:55Speaker 4: priority is getting it out there, getting it done, getting
- 7:58Speaker 4: it completed, knowing that you have to build agility into
- 8:02Speaker 4: the process, knowing that you have to trust people to
- 8:07Speaker 4: do their job, Knowing that you have to trust yourself
- 8:11Speaker 4: to question the experts sometimes along the way because they
- 8:16Speaker 4: might have their own being, you know, their own blinders,
- 8:19Speaker 4: being too integrated in their own process. So it's about trust,
- 8:25Speaker 4: it's about trusting yourself trusting them. And it's a strategic
- 8:30Speaker 4: birds I view with that goal of it's got to
- 8:32Speaker 4: get done and it's got to get done well. So
- 8:35Speaker 4: I always have that kind of strategic mind and I
- 8:39Speaker 4: do that with my own business. I think I'm very
- 8:43Speaker 4: focused and strategic, and I trust people to like I
- 8:54Speaker 4: trust my vendors, but I always verify that they're staying
- 8:58Speaker 4: on top of things, and that keeps us all honest.
- 9:02Speaker 4: And so it's some of those like little moment like
- 9:07Speaker 4: those those things you might take it like for granted
- 9:11Speaker 4: the importance of holding regular meetings, checking in, keeping us
- 9:15Speaker 4: on cadence, keeping us on tasks. So it's just those
- 9:18Speaker 4: project management also, I would say, those project management skills. Yeah,
- 9:24Speaker 4: and with that strategic goal in mind, you always keep
- 9:27Speaker 4: that goal in mind.
- 9:29Speaker 1: Yeah, what would you say? So, Sarah, you brought up
- 9:32Speaker 1: a lot of good things. So I know you have
- 9:34Speaker 1: your your masters. I know you know you've done so
- 9:38Speaker 1: much in marketing, but like you know, I'm sure you've
- 9:41Speaker 1: learned some of these things along the way as you're going. Right,
- 9:44Speaker 1: It's not like you've figured all this stuff all at
- 9:46Speaker 1: once you figured it out, right, It's like.
- 9:48Speaker 3: This is an ongoing thing.
- 9:49Speaker 1: So what would just I mean, so I think people
- 9:52Speaker 1: sometimes think we'll all just take a project management class
- 9:54Speaker 1: or a marketing class and I've got figured out, like,
- 9:57Speaker 1: you know, it just doesn't. I always t clients do
- 10:00Speaker 1: when I'm coming into organizational health and I'm trying to
- 10:02Speaker 1: help their people.
- 10:03Speaker 3: I'm like, it's not going to.
- 10:04Speaker 1: Be like boom, like, well, I can just give you
- 10:06Speaker 1: a one workshop thing and you're going to figure it
- 10:08Speaker 1: out and know how to do all this stuff.
- 10:10Speaker 3: Right.
- 10:11Speaker 4: Yeah, I know that's a really good point. You know,
- 10:17Speaker 4: my you can't be afraid of always having to learn
- 10:21Speaker 4: something new. So everything that is new keeps your brain
- 10:27Speaker 4: just kind of more elastic, for one, but also you
- 10:31Speaker 4: got to get comfortable in that learning curve. You got
- 10:37Speaker 4: to get comfortable just being a little confused sometimes. And
- 10:41Speaker 4: you can't be afraid of being confused, and you can't
- 10:44Speaker 4: look at being confused as a sign.
- 10:48Speaker 2: Of your weakness.
- 10:49Speaker 4: It's just a sign that you're growing and you're learning
- 10:51Speaker 4: something new, and you can't be afraid to ask other
- 10:58Speaker 4: people for their assistance along the way. Like even even
- 11:03Speaker 4: at my job, I was stuck on this this spreadsheet, okay,
- 11:09Speaker 4: and it was getting really complex and it was trying
- 11:13Speaker 4: to fulfill too many things. And I knew this other
- 11:17Speaker 4: lady was really great at data, and I would say,
- 11:20Speaker 4: I'm pretty good at data, but I just knew I'm
- 11:22Speaker 4: going to go to her because I know that she's
- 11:24Speaker 4: discreted it.
- 11:25Speaker 2: So I hailed her now.
- 11:27Speaker 4: I was like, hey, can you help me with my broads?
- 11:31Speaker 2: And she said, let me take a look.
- 11:33Speaker 4: And I think I was so heartened to learn that
- 11:36Speaker 4: I was so close the things that she the little
- 11:41Speaker 4: tips that she taught me. First of all, I was
- 11:45Speaker 4: impressed with her level of expertise, and I wasn't. I
- 11:50Speaker 4: was also surprised that I wasn't that far off that
- 11:53Speaker 4: you might be surprised that you're actually probably better than
- 11:59Speaker 4: you think, closer than you think. And once you are
- 12:03Speaker 4: a little bit more humble and ask for help, then
- 12:06Speaker 4: guess what. Now you are no longer at this level.
- 12:09Speaker 4: You're at this level now may not be here, but
- 12:12Speaker 4: you're still here. So you're just a little bit farther
- 12:15Speaker 4: and your your only goal is to be better for
- 12:18Speaker 4: your project.
- 12:20Speaker 1: Mm hm, well, I would say you're I mean, you
- 12:23Speaker 1: hit a lot of top points thereh Sarah.
- 12:27Speaker 3: What I One of.
- 12:27Speaker 1: The words I would use is are you Are you coachable?
- 12:31Speaker 1: Are you a person that can be coached? Humbol nough
- 12:33Speaker 1: for sure? And I would I can only surmise in
- 12:36Speaker 1: your fourteen years, you know the marketing that you were doing,
- 12:40Speaker 1: you know you've been a few years ago, or like.
- 12:42Speaker 3: I said, there was COVID and other things. You have
- 12:44Speaker 3: to adapt.
- 12:45Speaker 1: You don't just set it and forget it, right, I mean,
- 12:47Speaker 1: you're never you're learning right. It's like there's certain things
- 12:50Speaker 1: you understand fundamentally right, but things change in the market,
- 12:54Speaker 1: people's taste change.
- 12:55Speaker 3: Like right, what yeah?
- 12:58Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 12:59Speaker 4: Soone that's something I kind of like struggle with sometimes
- 13:05Speaker 4: is when I start something and I let it kind
- 13:08Speaker 4: of go. It really keeps me up at night and
- 13:12Speaker 4: I think, oh my god, I'm letting it go. That's
- 13:14Speaker 4: a sign that I'm not on top.
- 13:16Speaker 2: Of my stuff.
- 13:18Speaker 4: Right, So I've always had that like, oh gosh, I'm
- 13:21Speaker 4: letting this project go. And one that helps me achieve
- 13:26Speaker 4: my goals because of my inner motivation to get things done.
- 13:30Speaker 4: So I'm very like, I'm very focused on completing a
- 13:33Speaker 4: task because I just have my own my own internal standards.
- 13:38Speaker 2: But I've also learned, actually.
- 13:42Speaker 4: Through my husband's example, is you have to be willing
- 13:46Speaker 4: to test and then fail fast and move on. And
- 13:51Speaker 4: so I've learned like Okay, that didn't work.
- 13:54Speaker 2: And being able to.
- 13:56Speaker 4: Just push it aside, like okay, that didn't work next,
- 14:00Speaker 4: or just tweak like little tweaks, little tweak.
- 14:04Speaker 1: That's Sarah. I want to stop positive because I think
- 14:06Speaker 1: that's so important because sometimes people I've I've noticed this
- 14:10Speaker 1: is they try an initiative. In most in only a
- 14:13Speaker 1: portion of it is bad or it needs to be tweaked,
- 14:16Speaker 1: But they throw the whole thing out and then they
- 14:18Speaker 1: start brand new all over, like brand new. So I
- 14:21Speaker 1: mean when you every time you start brand new again,
- 14:24Speaker 1: that's a whole lot of energy and effort. So what
- 14:26Speaker 1: I think what you just said was like tweaking and
- 14:29Speaker 1: I found from marketing and you tell me because I've learned.
- 14:31Speaker 1: But some people think it's just kind of changing a
- 14:33Speaker 1: word or moving things around just ever so slightly, could
- 14:36Speaker 1: be the thing that unlocks people.
- 14:39Speaker 5: That's so true, especially with like, especially with like like
- 14:47Speaker 5: your brand and your your ad words.
- 14:52Speaker 4: I mean, I've spent gosh hours and I don't even
- 14:57Speaker 4: want to give a monetary value of tweaking our ads
- 15:02Speaker 4: spend and our.
- 15:04Speaker 2: Just our ad words.
- 15:06Speaker 4: On Amazon and all of the sites that we sell
- 15:10Speaker 4: on in addition to our website. It's those tweaks of
- 15:14Speaker 4: the words that make a massive difference and even time
- 15:19Speaker 4: of day, and you know, when you're exposing to your
- 15:23Speaker 4: audience a.
- 15:24Speaker 2: Certain keyword or I mean, yes, the tweaks matter.
- 15:30Speaker 4: So you have to have someone there counting the beans,
- 15:34Speaker 4: you know, like you have to have a bean counter
- 15:36Speaker 4: in addition to someone looking at the bigger picture. So
- 15:39Speaker 4: if you can assemble a team of people that are
- 15:43Speaker 4: expert that are better at you in certain areas of
- 15:47Speaker 4: the business. I mean that's where the sweet spot is
- 15:50Speaker 4: right there. People have willing to tweak all the time,
- 15:54Speaker 4: and you have to come in and make sure that
- 15:56Speaker 4: it's all everyone's on course.
- 15:58Speaker 2: That's how I see it.
- 16:00Speaker 1: No, that's I mean that another key point you know,
- 16:04Speaker 1: in in in leading being a leader and team building
- 16:08Speaker 1: and you know, organizational growth, which you know my passion
- 16:11Speaker 1: is is people developing teams. But you know, like you said,
- 16:14Speaker 1: it's finding the right players get on the team right
- 16:18Speaker 1: and nurturing that. And I love when we were talking
- 16:21Speaker 1: before about warts and all or figuring out the challenges
- 16:24Speaker 1: with the right you know, but where are they best,
- 16:28Speaker 1: Where are they best suited? Where they fit within the organization,
- 16:31Speaker 1: whether they're an employee, whether they're a contractor even a
- 16:34Speaker 1: supplier or somebody else, Right, how do they fit within
- 16:36Speaker 1: the team. I think sometimes business owners, particularly when you're
- 16:40Speaker 1: talking about maybe not so much vendors, but some employees
- 16:44Speaker 1: or independent contractors, is they they hold they wait, maybe
- 16:47Speaker 1: wait too long. They're trying to do too much themselves
- 16:49Speaker 1: or trying to figure it out. And like, look, if
- 16:51Speaker 1: you just get this other person in they could help.
- 16:53Speaker 2: You go faster, right, yeah, I definitely do not want to.
- 17:01Speaker 4: Waste time trying to figure it out when I could
- 17:06Speaker 4: spend the money the investment.
- 17:11Speaker 2: And work with.
- 17:11Speaker 4: Someone else who can get me there faster, because for me,
- 17:15Speaker 4: time is like if you're spending that, there's that opportunity cost.
- 17:20Speaker 4: You know they teach you about in business school, right.
- 17:23Speaker 2: Right, that you're losing out on.
- 17:27Speaker 4: By not solving the next issue when you're stuck on
- 17:31Speaker 4: this one, right and then learning you know, if it's
- 17:36Speaker 4: a discovery, like am I even on the right path?
- 17:39Speaker 4: Like if you spend too much time on one path,
- 17:41Speaker 4: you could be like getting stuck, and you don't want
- 17:44Speaker 4: to get stuck.
- 17:45Speaker 2: You've got to keep moving forward.
- 17:47Speaker 1: Right yeah, yeah, I mean, and it's again finding everybody's strength.
- 17:53Speaker 1: So you know, your husband was a creative one and
- 17:55Speaker 1: he started to come up with all these and and
- 17:59Speaker 1: I appreciate that the creative voices, but then you you're
- 18:01Speaker 1: you're here, like how do we market this? How do
- 18:03Speaker 1: we and then and of course systematize this a little
- 18:05Speaker 1: bit more and then that we can bring in right
- 18:09Speaker 1: to do that, And so I just thought, you know,
- 18:14Speaker 1: especially in your early part of your journey that you
- 18:16Speaker 1: were talking to me Sarah about like, oh man, this
- 18:19Speaker 1: is hard at first, but but you realize I think
- 18:21Speaker 1: very early on even you said like, hey, we've got
- 18:24Speaker 1: to get some people that believe in us and that
- 18:26Speaker 1: know that, you know, get them on our sigh, on
- 18:28Speaker 1: our team. And I find I want to encourage other
- 18:31Speaker 1: businesses if you're trying to do this by yourself or
- 18:33Speaker 1: alone and just trying to grit through you, I mean,
- 18:37Speaker 1: maybe you can do it, but I think you're going
- 18:39Speaker 1: to be much in a healthier place and happier with
- 18:41Speaker 1: your life even that you've right, that's true.
- 18:46Speaker 2: And then.
- 18:49Speaker 4: So a lot of it is people's skills, right, You
- 18:52Speaker 4: have to have people's skills. You have to be very patient.
- 18:54Speaker 4: Sometimes you have to overlook like personality, you know, quirks.
- 19:01Speaker 4: We were talking earlier, not on this call, but about
- 19:05Speaker 4: how sometimes you just got to like embrace people for
- 19:10Speaker 4: all of their well roundedness works and all, because we
- 19:14Speaker 4: all have them, and but they all have that gem
- 19:19Speaker 4: that you need to just they all need to work
- 19:21Speaker 4: together to just help you accomplish your your goals.
- 19:25Speaker 2: And when you can, when you can.
- 19:29Speaker 4: Be patient and kind of just sidesteps certain things that
- 19:33Speaker 4: you know that maybe culturally there's a difference.
- 19:36Speaker 2: Oh you're from this date, I'm from this state.
- 19:37Speaker 4: We don't look at this things the same way. Or
- 19:40Speaker 4: you are different political persuasion, whatever it is. We have
- 19:43Speaker 4: different opinions here or there. Or you're slower paced than me.
- 19:47Speaker 4: I'm fast paced and i'm you know, I'm in goal paid.
- 19:51Speaker 4: But you're just focusing on all these little details it
- 19:53Speaker 4: don't matter. So you got to kind of like sift
- 19:57Speaker 4: through that a little bit and and then it can
- 20:02Speaker 4: work together, like it's if you it's like the sausage
- 20:06Speaker 4: always gets made, but it is messy in the process sometimes.
- 20:10Speaker 2: And but that's where.
- 20:12Speaker 4: Like the like like like the fun happens, you know,
- 20:16Speaker 4: like in that test kitchen. And I think all of
- 20:19Speaker 4: my metaphors end up being about food, so excuse me there.
- 20:26Speaker 4: So yeah, you have to trust other people and and
- 20:33Speaker 4: and even with people like you have to be patient.
- 20:36Speaker 4: So I've been working on this one project, this one
- 20:41Speaker 4: website that I'm getting built, and it's been taking some
- 20:45Speaker 4: delays and that's okay because we're figuring things out and
- 20:49Speaker 4: I just know, having worked with this person before that
- 20:52Speaker 4: we've got to keep a steady like steady interaction, steady communication.
- 20:57Speaker 4: And I know that's what works with this person. Person
- 21:01Speaker 4: I work with for advertising, for example, I helped equip
- 21:06Speaker 4: him with the right technology and he learned that technology and.
- 21:10Speaker 2: I learned it along with him.
- 21:12Speaker 4: And I would come in, you know, an occasion, review
- 21:17Speaker 4: the work, see where there were misses, help guide and direct.
- 21:21Speaker 4: But now that he's got it, if I overstep, then
- 21:26Speaker 4: that might pose a little bit of a I don't know.
- 21:30Speaker 4: I don't want to say insulting, that's too too strong
- 21:32Speaker 4: of a word, but it might peer that I'm not
- 21:35Speaker 4: trusting his work. So it's like I know that works
- 21:37Speaker 4: with him. I know, just gentle prodding works this person.
- 21:40Speaker 4: This person might need consistent communication and work, you know.
- 21:44Speaker 2: So like you learn along the way what works. But
- 21:47Speaker 2: it's just that end goal in mind.
- 21:50Speaker 4: Then that's that's your Then it'll be fine.
- 21:53Speaker 3: What what I hear you? What I hear you've married.
- 21:58Speaker 1: I'll use the term kind of emotional intelligence or emotional
- 22:02Speaker 1: like you. I was just I was just listening to
- 22:04Speaker 1: another presentation recently about does is I Q trump?
- 22:11Speaker 3: Is that more important today's world? Like you being super smart?
- 22:15Speaker 1: And I think it once was I don't know that
- 22:18Speaker 1: it is critical because we've got other tools. We've got AI,
- 22:21Speaker 1: we've got other tools information. But that that but becoming
- 22:26Speaker 1: what you just explained, Sarah, becoming self aware of yourself
- 22:31Speaker 1: number one, and I have a whole other podcast called
- 22:34Speaker 1: the Intelligent Human Leadership Podcast, Know Yourself to Lead Yourself.
- 22:37Speaker 1: But a discovery of like you've learned, this is where
- 22:40Speaker 1: my sweet spot is I do right and vice versa.
- 22:44Speaker 1: This you just explain this other person does this really well,
- 22:46Speaker 1: which I don't. I could I learn it, but they
- 22:48Speaker 1: are actually better and maybe they've become the expert at it.
- 22:52Speaker 1: They're really thriving at it. I think, you know, I'm
- 22:55Speaker 1: like you, I like learn know a lot a lot
- 22:56Speaker 1: of things. But I realized, what's my strength? I need
- 23:00Speaker 1: to stay at you know what worked? They they're the
- 23:03Speaker 1: majority of the time, and so sometimes I feel like, again,
- 23:07Speaker 1: if you're a business owner's being really rigid, like they
- 23:10Speaker 1: have to do it my way. I'm I'm the expert,
- 23:13Speaker 1: and I understand it all if you if you're the
- 23:15Speaker 1: if sometimes I think business owners might you know, if
- 23:19Speaker 1: everything comes to them, you're you're gonna you're there's a
- 23:22Speaker 1: limit to where you can grow and scale the company
- 23:24Speaker 1: because you're the answer man. You're the person that knows
- 23:26Speaker 1: everything and how everything should be done right.
- 23:29Speaker 3: And I think I may even mentioned the.
- 23:31Speaker 1: Book e Myth by Michael I'm Gerber by this idea
- 23:35Speaker 1: of right, right, there's the the this manager there and
- 23:40Speaker 1: you're not being the entrepreneur. And so basically, if you
- 23:44Speaker 1: don't understand this about yourself, and this doesn't mean you
- 23:46Speaker 1: have you have a business owner right.
- 23:48Speaker 3: This could be anybody in your team too.
- 23:49Speaker 1: If they if they're just feeling like they've got end all,
- 23:53Speaker 1: be all, know everything, you're gonna be real limited in
- 23:56Speaker 1: how you can interact with folks. So I wanted people
- 23:59Speaker 1: to just realize, Sarah, what you're sharing is super valuable
- 24:03Speaker 1: because it's it's made you successful both at Ezri and
- 24:06Speaker 1: in Curb and Sign.
- 24:07Speaker 3: It sounds to me, sounds like to.
- 24:09Speaker 2: Me, I hope so.
- 24:11Speaker 4: And by the way I met I met Michael Gerber.
- 24:15Speaker 2: He gave it. He gave us some advice.
- 24:17Speaker 4: Yeah, he spoke at my church and he taught and
- 24:21Speaker 4: it was like this.
- 24:22Speaker 2: Business summit, and he gave us some good advice.
- 24:25Speaker 4: He told us, you don't have to go around business
- 24:28Speaker 4: to get business. Yes, because we were thinking, oh we're
- 24:31Speaker 4: going to go into this other that's before we were on,
- 24:33Speaker 4: when we were before we were online.
- 24:36Speaker 2: Now we're everywhere. So yeah, but yeah, he was very.
- 24:41Speaker 4: Very kind and I did take his expertise to heart
- 24:44Speaker 4: and we listen. We listened to him. I would definitely
- 24:50Speaker 4: say EQ is probably more important, especially for me. And
- 24:57Speaker 4: you have to know yourself and you also have to
- 24:59Speaker 4: know how you're perceive sometimes because I think, you know,
- 25:06Speaker 4: like I don't know. I think if I were to
- 25:09Speaker 4: act like my husband, who's a little more authoritative, right,
- 25:12Speaker 4: he's very entrepreneurial, Like he's not just a creative, he's
- 25:16Speaker 4: very entrepreneurial, excellent sales person and also but also helps
- 25:23Speaker 4: teach people how to sell and grow that business. And
- 25:27Speaker 4: I'm also entrepreneurial, but I'm systems focused. I'm project focused.
- 25:31Speaker 4: And I would say, like that works together, yeah, the uh.
- 25:39Speaker 4: But for me, I know, if I were to act
- 25:41Speaker 4: like him, like coming from me, if I were to
- 25:44Speaker 4: be a little bit more authoritative like him, I know,
- 25:46Speaker 4: if people would perceive it as well or take it
- 25:49Speaker 4: as well. And I don't know that that's probably a
- 25:51Speaker 4: broader conversation about being a woman or or what people
- 25:55Speaker 4: expected me. And also I'm naturally not like that, Like
- 25:59Speaker 4: I'm more consensus building, I'm more democratic, I like to inspire.
- 26:03Speaker 4: I'm a little bit softer and I do a little
- 26:08Speaker 4: gentle coaxing in line, you know, as opposed to being
- 26:12Speaker 4: like my way or the highway. Yeah, so I yeah,
- 26:17Speaker 4: I think if I were to do something a little
- 26:19Speaker 4: bit differently, it would first of all come across disingenuous.
- 26:23Speaker 4: And I don't know if that's just because that's not
- 26:25Speaker 4: my national style or if it's because, you know, I've
- 26:31Speaker 4: developed that style because I'm like a woman business owner
- 26:36Speaker 4: and people want to see me in a certain way.
- 26:38Speaker 2: I don't know.
- 26:39Speaker 1: Yeah, I really want to think you're gonna have to
- 26:41Speaker 1: do to take my five Voices assessment, Sarah, I'll have
- 26:43Speaker 1: you answer that to you, because what what what I
- 26:47Speaker 1: think you're getting at it here though, for everybody that's
- 26:49Speaker 1: listening as a business owner, it is finding your sweet
- 26:52Speaker 1: spot of what is and in the five voices framework,
- 26:55Speaker 1: that's something that I use through my company is how
- 26:58Speaker 1: we understand ourselves and it's just a way of it's
- 27:02Speaker 1: an inclusive way we can have all of the leadership voices,
- 27:04Speaker 1: if you will, Like you said Sarah, I think we
- 27:06Speaker 1: have all of them. It's just a matter of where's
- 27:08Speaker 1: our natural what do we naturally stronger at than than others.
- 27:13Speaker 1: And so for example, what I hear you say, what
- 27:16Speaker 1: waits really well with you and your husband that he's
- 27:18Speaker 1: kind of this visionary he's got a mission, he sees
- 27:21Speaker 1: this big picture where he's driving it. And oftentimes my experience,
- 27:25Speaker 1: those I call pioneers are a little bit more up
- 27:29Speaker 1: front and because they're on a mission kind of if
- 27:32Speaker 1: you think about going through the jungle, that the bushwhackers
- 27:34Speaker 1: are making the way, so they don't really they're not.
- 27:37Speaker 3: I you know, I cut my finger, like no, well,
- 27:40Speaker 3: where where gonna go? Let's keep going. You're like, oh, yeah,
- 27:43Speaker 3: right where.
- 27:46Speaker 4: Well he's also he was a marine too, so maybe
- 27:50Speaker 4: that clears it up a little bit more. And I'm
- 27:54Speaker 4: kind of like that.
- 27:56Speaker 2: I would say, I'm more of like that power, like
- 27:59Speaker 2: that energy, like I fuel that for me.
- 28:03Speaker 4: I think it could be any business. I just like
- 28:08Speaker 4: to get it going, you know, like I'll help fuel it.
- 28:11Speaker 4: I'll help make your dreams happen. I'm having fun behind
- 28:15Speaker 4: the scenes making it happen. And I think it's all
- 28:21Speaker 4: about your attitude as well, Like if you're having fun,
- 28:24Speaker 4: if you remind yourself, this is fun.
- 28:27Speaker 2: Problem solving is fun.
- 28:29Speaker 4: Yes, working with people it's fun. Having challenges are fun.
- 28:34Speaker 4: You keep maybe I don't know, Like sometimes I have
- 28:37Speaker 4: to remind myself that when it gets very stressful or
- 28:40Speaker 4: we get to the end goal, I have.
- 28:42Speaker 2: To remind myself it's the journey. Have fun doing it.
- 28:47Speaker 4: Then it's so it can be accomplished, so much easier
- 28:51Speaker 4: and better than ever than ever you imagined.
- 28:56Speaker 2: And that was always my secret, even in going.
- 29:00Speaker 4: Through academia, like going through school. When I was in
- 29:05Speaker 4: high school, I was a valedictorian. I know, this was
- 29:08Speaker 4: a long time ago. I was probably if they had
- 29:11Speaker 4: an ealditorian for college, I probably would have been that.
- 29:15Speaker 4: And so going through school and all subjects, you know,
- 29:21Speaker 4: whether it was masters or undergrad or high school, what
- 29:25Speaker 4: I told myself all the time was this is fun.
- 29:30Speaker 4: I love math, I love science, I love this, I
- 29:33Speaker 4: love that. Find the synergies between these topics, Like if
- 29:37Speaker 4: I changed my perspective and made my attitude positive, yes,
- 29:44Speaker 4: then the outcome was better than I imagined.
- 29:47Speaker 3: Wow.
- 29:48Speaker 2: Yeah, that was my secret.
- 29:50Speaker 3: That's no.
- 29:51Speaker 1: I mean that's huge because think about people that are stuck.
- 29:55Speaker 1: And I think this goes into kind of leadership too, Sarah,
- 29:58Speaker 1: as you're if you're leading this and then they're experiencing that, uh,
- 30:02Speaker 1: just the positiveness you're you're like, hey, look we're we're
- 30:05Speaker 1: gonna win together. I think people know naturally are drawn
- 30:09Speaker 1: the energy and like, hey, this is a an opportunity
- 30:14Speaker 1: of problem, but an opportunity here for us are a puzzle,
- 30:18Speaker 1: if you will, and how are we gonna how are
- 30:21Speaker 1: we going to figure this out? But not unfortunately, you know,
- 30:25Speaker 1: in in in creating a culture like you like I said,
- 30:28Speaker 1: and in developing your teams that way versus opposite way
- 30:33Speaker 1: of people are trying to be manipulated their fear. They're
- 30:37Speaker 1: like trying to control you know, be a micromanager if
- 30:42Speaker 1: you will, And they're frustrated and they're angry, and they're
- 30:45Speaker 1: irritated because you don't do it the right way and
- 30:48Speaker 1: understand this and and so the you know you've seen
- 30:52Speaker 1: I've seen that and and folks, and what's once it
- 30:55Speaker 1: was something that actually hopefully brought them do or that
- 30:59Speaker 1: is no longer something that brings them life, gets them excited,
- 31:03Speaker 1: and there's nothing more miserable. When you work with somebody,
- 31:05Speaker 1: it's just like that's their like life. You can feel
- 31:08Speaker 1: the energy, right and it's like many enjoyable to be around,
- 31:13Speaker 1: you know.
- 31:13Speaker 4: Yeah, and then you have to you really have to
- 31:17Speaker 4: try to like.
- 31:20Speaker 2: Shift the.
- 31:22Speaker 4: You know, that visual in your mind because you know
- 31:25Speaker 4: we're all going to come across like some negative energies
- 31:30Speaker 4: and you have to.
- 31:33Speaker 2: I think it was my dad.
- 31:34Speaker 4: He would always say, oh, you've got to look at
- 31:36Speaker 4: it like it's oh, I shouldn't repeat this, but it's
- 31:39Speaker 4: like fly poop, but he didn't use the word poop.
- 31:43Speaker 2: Right, So if you like minimize that.
- 31:45Speaker 4: Issue to just being so meaningless, then it just go
- 31:51Speaker 4: about my business and just continue and try to work with.
- 31:57Speaker 2: What you're given, you know.
- 31:59Speaker 4: And it doesn't always. Sometimes those energies can be a burdensome,
- 32:06Speaker 4: I will admit. And it does delay projects, it does
- 32:11Speaker 4: you know, have you know a cost to your your
- 32:15Speaker 4: business outcomes sometimes and that's the reality of it.
- 32:19Speaker 2: But you know, I.
- 32:22Speaker 4: Mean the best like historical wonders of the world. I
- 32:26Speaker 4: would say, pyramids, you know, we're built in a desert. Yeah,
- 32:30Speaker 4: So sometimes you can have the best most lasting assets,
- 32:38Speaker 4: you know, products or whatever you're building in an environment
- 32:43Speaker 4: that is not always going.
- 32:44Speaker 2: To be comfortable.
- 32:47Speaker 4: And if you just tell yourself that, just go through
- 32:50Speaker 4: it anyway, yeah, and it'll be fine despite it.
- 32:54Speaker 3: Don't stop. I think that's when you when you lose.
- 32:57Speaker 1: Is that you guys have been going through for fourteen years,
- 33:00Speaker 1: how and ups and downs. I'm sure along the way,
- 33:04Speaker 1: you know, but it really is. You know, I think
- 33:07Speaker 1: as any business does, you know, there are times where
- 33:10Speaker 1: you're like, oh my gosh, what you know, I don't
- 33:12Speaker 1: know how we're going to do this, But like you said,
- 33:14Speaker 1: if you keep the mindset that hey, we can. You know,
- 33:17Speaker 1: I'm still trying to find the fund Charles, trying to
- 33:19Speaker 1: find something that I'm thankful for, gratitude or what is this?
- 33:22Speaker 1: What is this teaching me in the moment right.
- 33:26Speaker 4: Yeah, I have to remind myself that sometimes, and also
- 33:30Speaker 4: I have to remind my husband because he he might
- 33:33Speaker 4: take certain things to heart a little bit more. You know,
- 33:36Speaker 4: I have I have a career outside of the business.
- 33:40Speaker 4: So I'm the founder, like I'm a co founder, and
- 33:46Speaker 4: I hired people, I hired experts, and I'll come in
- 33:49Speaker 4: like on weekends and help with those special projects that
- 33:52Speaker 4: push it forward.
- 33:53Speaker 3: Yep.
- 33:54Speaker 4: But he manages it all, you know, all day to day,
- 33:58Speaker 4: and you know, I just come in, I.
- 34:01Speaker 2: Give a little fairy dusk, you know, and.
- 34:04Speaker 4: Then I have to go about my business with my career,
- 34:08Speaker 4: and I have to go about you know, I have sons,
- 34:12Speaker 4: I mean they're older now. I have a son in
- 34:14Speaker 4: college and a son still in high school, but he's
- 34:17Speaker 4: a junior upperclassman, and it's still busy.
- 34:20Speaker 2: So I find that.
- 34:22Speaker 4: I'm constantly like juggling a little bit. So when I see,
- 34:30Speaker 4: you know, my husband, if he gets like a little
- 34:31Speaker 4: stressed out, or if I see my kids stressed, or
- 34:34Speaker 4: even people at work stress, I try to kind of
- 34:41Speaker 4: encourage them when I can and help out when I can.
- 34:45Speaker 4: And I think maybe I'm just service oriented.
- 34:50Speaker 2: And that gives me joy.
- 34:53Speaker 4: But I also need it too, like I need other
- 34:56Speaker 4: people to help me step out of it, step out
- 34:59Speaker 4: of it, Sarah, you're you know, you're wallowing a little
- 35:03Speaker 4: bit in this project or in this stressor you know,
- 35:06Speaker 4: to become a little neurotic in this. Because I would
- 35:10Speaker 4: say my weakness was also my strength is I can
- 35:14Speaker 4: be a little neurotic in ways like very detailed and
- 35:19Speaker 4: very like you know, try to look at a problem,
- 35:21Speaker 4: and I might get stuck in it a little bit
- 35:23Speaker 4: because I might be an overthinker, and I will go
- 35:27Speaker 4: to my like like you know, my people that help
- 35:33Speaker 4: leave that for me, Like I don't have all the answers.
- 35:36Speaker 4: I'm just like everyone else that gets step too. And
- 35:40Speaker 4: even though I like to pay it forward and help
- 35:42Speaker 4: people when they get stuck, I in no way am
- 35:45Speaker 4: I elevated or more like wise than anyone else, because
- 35:49Speaker 4: I also rely on those same people or others that
- 35:53Speaker 4: I've selected.
- 35:55Speaker 2: To get me back to peace.
- 35:57Speaker 4: And then I can be a better person and and
- 36:00Speaker 4: it helps the business and it helps my projects.
- 36:02Speaker 2: At the end of the day.
- 36:04Speaker 3: There you go, there you go. Oh man, Sarah, this
- 36:07Speaker 3: there's so much here.
- 36:08Speaker 1: I'm thinking, well, we're coming to a good We're coming
- 36:11Speaker 1: to the end of the podcast here. But I think
- 36:13Speaker 1: what I heard you say, I'm gonna reiterate back and
- 36:16Speaker 1: and is you know again be coachable? And do you
- 36:21Speaker 1: have others around you, whether it's your your husband, your family,
- 36:25Speaker 1: is it? Is it you know, other employees, vendors, people
- 36:29Speaker 1: that you can build a relationship with it's too.
- 36:32Speaker 3: It's a two way street. That's what I heard you say.
- 36:34Speaker 1: Yeah, hey, that they can speak into my life and
- 36:36Speaker 1: I can speak into their life. And do you have
- 36:40Speaker 1: you created a community connection like that?
- 36:42Speaker 4: It sounds Sarah, absolutely have. My mom has been gone
- 36:49Speaker 4: for twelve years, but growing up, I always went to
- 36:52Speaker 4: my mom and I would say she her wisdom was
- 36:59Speaker 4: always about the positivity was about you know, oh, I'm
- 37:03Speaker 4: hearing some okay, but after you know, she's been gone
- 37:10Speaker 4: for a very long time. So I had to lean
- 37:12Speaker 4: on myself. But I also lean on a community. I
- 37:16Speaker 4: lean on my husband, I lean.
- 37:19Speaker 2: On my dad a lot poor things Dad. I'll lean
- 37:27Speaker 2: on my sister.
- 37:29Speaker 4: She and I have a very similar mind, so we're
- 37:32Speaker 4: just like we probably stay stuck in things because we're
- 37:35Speaker 4: so similar. My aunt and people at work that helped
- 37:41Speaker 4: me cent her and people you wouldn't even expect to
- 37:45Speaker 4: be the person that gives you the advice you meet, Like,
- 37:47Speaker 4: I'm always open to that. So, like, I have people
- 37:51Speaker 4: that I've hired for things around the house or things
- 37:54Speaker 4: like that, and they will give me some of the
- 37:57Speaker 4: best advice that I needed about parenting an adult or
- 38:04Speaker 4: you know, things like that, and it helps because we're
- 38:07Speaker 4: all on this journey and people, even if they're not
- 38:12Speaker 4: in business or they're in a completely different kind of
- 38:14Speaker 4: business or a different way of life, they still have
- 38:17Speaker 4: wisdom to share and you have to be open to
- 38:20Speaker 4: that and humble enough to accept it.
- 38:23Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, I think that.
- 38:25Speaker 1: I mean that is it's probably a great place to
- 38:31Speaker 1: stop for the podcast of this today, Sarah, because if
- 38:34Speaker 1: you're listening to this podcast as well, Yeah, that's when
- 38:36Speaker 1: we have the business roundtable, because we want to have
- 38:37Speaker 1: people like yourself on Sarah that share and know you're
- 38:41Speaker 1: not alone and know that Hey, who else could I
- 38:45Speaker 1: talk to you?
- 38:45Speaker 3: Who else? Is there something that I could learn from?
- 38:47Speaker 1: And Sarah, we're gonna want to put your contact information
- 38:51Speaker 1: in your show notes.
- 38:51Speaker 3: So what's the best way for folks to find you
- 38:54Speaker 3: and curban Sign?
- 38:57Speaker 4: Okay, So for curbon Sign, you can go to curbansign
- 39:03Speaker 4: dot com.
- 39:05Speaker 1: And so you guys can can we'll put it on there, Okay,
- 39:11Speaker 1: on LinkedIn and LinkedIn. Yeah, Sarah's there, just connected to me,
- 39:14Speaker 1: So you guys find me or Sarah, we would love
- 39:17Speaker 1: to connect with you.
- 39:19Speaker 3: Absolutely great.
- 39:21Speaker 2: I welcome that.
- 39:22Speaker 1: Yeah, we would really love to have you back. Honestly, Sarah,
- 39:28Speaker 1: I think we would have. I love to have We've
- 39:31Speaker 1: ha been have a lot of one on one conversations
- 39:34Speaker 1: of late The Roundtable originally started with a number of
- 39:36Speaker 1: business owners, and I think we'll we love to have
- 39:39Speaker 1: you back for another conversation because I think just this
- 39:42Speaker 1: idea of team building and what you've been able to
- 39:44Speaker 1: do at Curb and Sign and how you've been able
- 39:47Speaker 1: to mentor your team and and the things you've learned
- 39:50Speaker 1: has just been I love it and I want to
- 39:53Speaker 1: I'm really bring businesses on the podcast here that I'm supportive,
- 39:57Speaker 1: love and excited about and seeing where you go are going.
- 40:00Speaker 3: So yeah, thank you for joining us.
- 40:04Speaker 4: Yeah, thank you for the excellent conversation, great questions. You
- 40:08Speaker 4: really got me thinking and open to open my mind
- 40:12Speaker 4: up and I appreciate that and I look forward to
- 40:14Speaker 4: future conversations absolutely.
- 40:17Speaker 1: Thanks Sarah for being on the podcast. Thanks everybody else
- 40:20Speaker 1: for joining us. Until the next time, We'll look forward
- 40:24Speaker 1: to having you like, subscribe toll us on YouTube, connect
- 40:28Speaker 1: with us, Sarah and On and all of our podcast guests.
- 40:31Speaker 3: Thanks for up being with us and business. Can I
- 40:33Speaker 3: get well?
- 40:34Speaker 2: Paddy, thank you